


One Night More, We've Only Had Four

by BanishedOne



Category: SidonLink, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, sidlink - Fandom
Genre: AU, Experimental, M/M, Other, Physical Disability, Suspense, first person POV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 16:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14980727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BanishedOne/pseuds/BanishedOne
Summary: There was way too much to take in about the strange, new world I woke up to, as if the notion of being asleep for a century wasn't startling enough. If there were a metaphorical spectator, following my thoughts and waiting for something interesting to occur, I'd skip all the bizarre nonsense about Calamity, corruption and new technology. Instead, I'd begin with the first evening of my new occupation and my unexpected interaction with the creature in one of the containment areas.





	One Night More, We've Only Had Four

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends and newcomers. I am BanishedOne, and this is a new story that I was inspired to write a while ago now, but I'm only now getting around to posting it. It's experimental and just for fun, so unlike with CB, I'm not sure when or if I'll update it. We'll just have to see how it goes. Let me know what you think. :)

There was a lot to take in and frankly, I have never been good at adjusting to new situations, so I’ll spare you the wild details. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor on that.

“Here is your room,” the manager said stiffly, opening a heavy steel-barred door for me to wheel myself inside. I gave the door a dubious glance, trying hard not to be too obvious about it, but probably failing in that endeavor. The place looked and felt like a prison cell, and the door was just the initial warning.

The room was small, not that I needed much, so I’m not even sure why I’m complaining. Guess I’m just not the type to be pleased with anything. There was a small cot and a single window that let in a reasonable amount of light. 

“Thanks,” I said weakly, caring about as little for pleasantries as the manager appeared to. The way I saw it, it was mutually beneficial if neither of us pretended to like or care about the other. It saved us the effort, anyway. 

The steel-barred door shut with a disturbing clang, and I turned around in my wheelchair to get a look at the manager. Had he slammed it on purpose, or was that the sound it made when it was shut softly?

“Always lock this door when you’re inside,” the manager stated. “We’re not responsible for any accidents that occur if you forget to lock up. Not lost or damaged property, not damage to your person. Trust me, keep it locked. The keys are on the dresser.”

And without another word, he turned and left. What was that all about?

I put the brakes on, and carefully placed my feet upon the ground, raising myself out of the chair. There were pins and needles in the soles of my feet, and an ache in my bones, but my ass cheeks were asleep and rather appreciated me being off of them for a bit. I thought the goddamn orientation for this place was never going to end. It was just me, sitting alone in a room lit by disconcerting florescent lights, watching a hovering screen that detailed one pile of information after another. It wasn’t just beyond what I could absorb, it was neverending. I actually thought it was a mistake, and that I’d just been forgotten about.

I suppose that wouldn’t have been strange, considering I was forgotten about for a hundred years.

I took the first few steps away from my chair and toward the desk, intent on hunting down those keys that the manager had mentioned. The first thing I noticed on the dresser was a control panel that was meant to interface with my Sheikah Slate, essentially just casting a large, luminous screen across the wall, which I could control with the bizarre, technological device I’d received when I woke from my century long sleep.

I didn’t see the keys anywhere, however. He did say on top of the desk, right? I brushed my palms across the sleek surface, just in case I just couldn’t see objects right in front of me for some reason. Then, I proceeded to search all of the drawers, finding exactly nothing that resembled keys.

At last, I noticed a key-like symbol on the interface panel. Out of dull curiosity and general frustration, I tapped it. The panel gave me a prompt to connect my Sheikah Slate, and I complied, not entirely sure of what I was doing. The device fit into the rectangular docking port, and the mechanical parts locked into place with soft cranks and clicks.

Soon, the screen flashed to let me know that my device was connected, and the icons lit up in blue. I retrieved my slate and tapped the key icon once more, only for the barred door to my room to let out another resounding, metallic clank as it was snapped in place by an energy field with a faint, violet glow.

“A magnesis lock, right,” I groaned to myself with a sigh. I would’ve hated for the guy to be more specific about the fact that the ‘keys’ weren’t actual, physical keys. I suppose the part where I explained that I lived a hundred years ago, and prior to the rediscovery of this tech, must have missed him.

With that worrisome task handled, I decidedly walked myself over to the window. The view was nice, I couldn’t complain. The resort overlooked Lake Hylia, which was even more grand and beautiful than I remember it being. The waters were a deep, mysterious blue, kind of like a dark, cloudy gem, and they stretched well beyond the resort. 

For a sweet moment, I entertained the idea of leaping from my window, into the waters below, and trying to swim across them. I knew that I would never make it with how broken my body was, but somehow the notion of tiring half way and disappearing into the breathless, blue void was as tempting as it was terrifying.

And speaking of being tired, soon the pain in my bones overpowered my desire to enjoy the sights, and I threw myself down on the cot, instead. Thankfully, after such a long day, it wasn’t difficult for sleep to find me. That was quite a thankful blessing, because it was sure to be an even longer night.

;

It was my first evening on the job and I have to say, I expected the place to be creepy at night, once the attractions were closed off and all of the joy of the day made the stark shift to emptiness, silence.

Yet, somehow it managed to exceed even my expectations. 

Mind you, the resort was still a bustling place for people to vacation and visit, so there were plenty of guests in the occupancy areas but all of that was so distant, watching them on the camera felt like viewing pre-recorded footage that had been taken during the day. Meanwhile, employee residences were on the same floor as the attractions, and it was amazing how much effort was put into blocking it off to the general public. Every point of entry had a magnesis gate only accessible to those who had the right clearance runes programmed into their Slates.

The halls were black and empty. The lights were so dim and sparse, even wheeling myself from my room to the security office had been quite a damn task. It wasn’t a long way, but the resort was so complex and I wasn’t even familiar enough to find my way around yet in the daylight. I almost ended up in the damn underwater tunnels which looped around the entirety of Lake Hylia.

I doubt I would’ve ever found my way out of there in the dark. 

Probably the most disconcerting thing was that the attractions weren’t fully silent, despite being shut down for the night. Every now and again, messages echoed down the empty corridors on loop. The same voice repeated factoids like, ‘The Lizalfos species was officially rendered extinct in the year 56PC. Thanks to the eradication of the nuisance species, the United Hyrulean Nations have been able to reclaim hundreds of acres of territory that was previously occupied by the reptilian tribes.’

Like wow, we were so proud of ourselves for wiping something out, and yet we built exhibits with lifelike recreations of the very thing we destroyed, so we could marvel over it now that it was gone.

I hated that damn voice and its factoids. After it repeated itself so many times, the false joy in its tone began to feel so hollow that it was haunting.

Worse still was that the attractions, despite not being real animals, were still ‘alive’ at night. I didn’t personally understand why that was. Something to do with their programming and how their systems would react to being shut down nightly. Still, the actual lizalfos containment area happened to be between my room and the security office, so I was forced to pass it by on the way to start my shift. If I had to wager a guess, from the banging and shrieking that came from behind the darkened glass, I’d say that the beasts were still fairly discontent.

Once I made it to the office, however, it was a bit better. Perhaps it was the ominous way the manager had warned me about forgetting to lock up, but suddenly the magnesis locks on the doors felt very comforting. Apart from that and the creep-factor, yeah, it was just boring.

“It’ll be good for you. Consider it a period of adjustment to your new life and the changes which have occurred in our world since your..accident,” the doctors at the Plateau Program told me when they mentioned that I was being given a ‘job.’ “It’ll be easy. You just have to complete a short training program and from there, the entire job can be handled from a single office, so your physical disabilities won’t be a hindrance.”

Pricks. I wasn’t even going to be paid for doing the work, so somehow it felt even more like busy work. I couldn’t believe this was a damn requirement for my rehabilitation. 

“These days, people didn’t need rupees to acquire things,” I mused aloud with a sigh. That was the real reason I wasn’t going to be paid. Rupees weren’t required in order to acquire food, housing, or medical care any longer, so receiving them in exchange for labour was pointless. But again, given that I lived a hundred years prior to these vast shifts in our culture and civilization, it all felt bizarre and wrong.

“That was the most surprising thing that I learned during my rehabilitation,” I stated, sighing in total boredom. Yeah, okay, I was talking to myself now. I was hardly a single day free from the Plateau Program and already I was losing my mind. Then again, maybe the hundred years of sleep was to blame for my deteriorated sanity.

“The second most surprising thing was that people don’t really die anymore..” I vaguely wondered if I should use my Sheikah Slate to record my thoughts. The doctors had suggested it, but I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of going out of my way to self-analyse. I shrugged, decidedly continuing my insane musing without the watchful eye of my Slate. 

“They don’t die from old age, anyway,” I said, instinctively reaching upward to touch the new, pointed length of my ears. It was the one and only physical aspect that made it clear that a person had received the ‘Hylia Vaccine.’ People who had received it were now referred to as ‘Hylians,’ like we were a completely new race of people. 

Given that the vaccine caused a series of genetic mutations, I guess it was accurate for us to see ourselves as a new species.

“You’d think the discovery of immortality would be the most surprising thing to wake up to, especially considering that I received the vaccine prior to awakening,” I muttered a bit bitterly. Yeah, immortality was an odd thing to have thrust on me, and this time it was for reasons other than the fact that I existed before such things. No, this time.. there were other reasons.

Anyway, at least this boring job couldn’t exactly be called a ‘waste of my time’ any longer, since my apparent ‘time’ was without limits.

“But no, I am genuinely more perplexed that our system of currency was eradicated,” I uttered, leaning back in my wheelchair, and shifting my feet down from the rests in order to stretch my legs out. My eyes danced across the numerous hovering screens, and not so surprisingly, there was nothing going on at all. “Hell, with how people used to worship the rupees, it really is harder for me to believe they ever let go of that.”

The world was certainly a different place than the one I remembered, but I’d yet to decide if it had changed for the better. It sure seemed like it, but you know how it could be said that sometimes people donned rose-colored glasses? Yeah, I had the opposite of that, whatever that was called. Shit-colored glasses? Let’s go with that.

“It’s not the world’s fault that I am the way I am,” I muttered with another deep sigh, leaning my face into the palm of one hand. My Sheikah Slate would probably blink in a few hours to remind me that I still needed to take my serotonin boosters. My doctors had encouraged me to get these electronic implants that had been invented recently thanks to the technology boom, but that was another one of those things that I wasn’t ready for. The idea of having a computerized system implanted inside me that could control my brain activity was terrifying, regardless of how adamantly they reassured me that only I could toggle the settings from my Slate.

“I’m sorry..” The quiet of the security office was broken by surprise when a soft voice buzzed through one of the hovering monitor screens. I shot upright in my chair, my eyes wide and darting between the empty, uneventful images on camera. 

“Whose fault is it, then?” the disembodied voice continued, its tone rather distant, quiet, perhaps even a bit melancholy.

Fuck- this was not the kind of shit I wanted to interrupt my thoughts about being hijacked by a robotic computer brain. 

I didn’t utter a damn peep, of course. I wasn’t aware that somebody could hear me over the cameras and I was sure from the heat in my face that I was flushing in both embarrassment and nervousness. My gaze went back and forth between each of the various screens; there were some in the resort lobby and in the hallways of the occupancy areas. There were a few in the bar and lounge, and several that monitored the enclosed, underwater areas of the resort, such as those tunnels underneath Lake Hylia that I mentioned before.

You know what, there were a lot of cameras, but the point of this was that I couldn’t see anything on any of them to indicate somebody listening. I was fairly sure that the cameras recorded other people and only I could see and hear those on the other end of the lenses.. unless I was misunderstanding our complex technology again.

“Are you still there?” came the sound of the voice again, waiting for a response.

Did people actually break into this place? That seemed unlikely, because with all of the magnesis gates, this area of the resort was impenetrable. Plus, there was no such thing as currency anymore, so what reason did people have to commit robberies, unless it was some dumb kids playing a prank.

I reached for my Sheikah Slate, tapping into the contact screen, ready to alert the manager and the authorities, if necessary. But even though the confirmation button was right there waiting for me, I didn’t want to be the guy who overacted during his first shift. I hesitated, thinking that it certainly wouldn’t help my relationship with the manager if I woke him in the dead of night, especially if this turned out to be nothing.

Also, I had only heard about the machines that had replaced armies and security forces consisting of living, breathing people. They didn’t seem like the kind of thing to summon lightly.

Guardians they were called. 

For some reason, the thought of them made me even more nervous than the voice which, might or might not have been in my head.

“I see, you’re new,” the voice purred. Its tone was soft and deep, and from the way it spoke, if you imagined it to have a face, you could easily believe that a soft smile was resting upon its lips. “That’s why the security office has almost exceeded its maximum energy quota for the night.”

“Hello..?” I answered warily, inwardly kicking myself immediately after. Goddamn if I didn’t sound like the typical dumbass from horror stories. I cleared my throat, decidedly taking on a bit more authority in my tone as I went on. “Who the fuck is this? This is a restricted channel.”

“There’s no need to get so worked up,” that damnable voice patiently replied. A bit too patient for my liking. They were speaking to me like I was a child who needed soothing from my own temper. “I am meant to be here, much as you are, I presume. I merely couldn’t help but notice that the 2B grid has been inactive all evening and since that very rarely occurs, I interfaced with the security office in order to discern what was going on.”

“The 2B grid?” I repeated, going back to sounding like I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t know what was going on, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t conscious about it.

“Those cameras you’ve been watching? There are others, but you have to tab over on your Slate in order to access them,” it said, letting out an amused little chuckle. “I suppose you weren’t paying attention to all of those security tutorials they showed you. I simply cannot blame you. They are quite a bore.”

“You never answered me. Who is this? What is your clearance code?” I growled in reply. Take that smart ass. I didn’t forget everything from the training videos.

“You never answered me, either,” the one on the other end of the cameras slyly insisted. The sound of its voice had that grinning tone again. “Whose fault is it that you are the way you are?”

“..I didn’t mean for anyone to actually hear that,” I muttered sheepishly, despite the fact that I was seething. My hands were trembling as I began tabbing through the camera grids on the screen of my Sheikah Slate. For the love of fuck, there were multiple layers of various screens and I’ll just bet that this bit of information, despite being incredibly important, had been buried in the wall of instructions contained in those training videos.

 

“I didn’t expect to hear anyone talking, but I was nevertheless curious,” the other commented in reply, like they just wanted to make casual conversation. It was odd to the point that it sent a chill up my spine. 

From the moment I awakened from my century long slumber, whenever people spoke to me, it was always like their words stuck to the outer surface of me, not penetrating any deeper than that. They all wanted me to hear them, they all wanted to tell me what to do and how to feel. None of them had really stopped to ask me how I felt, and now, suddenly, some disembodied voice that I was convinced shouldn’t have been present was giving me that chance.

It was invasive yet intimate, and for some reason, because we were alone and I had no idea who I was even speaking to, I actually began to consider my own answer. I actually began to feel like there wasn’t any harm in speaking the truth aloud.

“So?” it prodded once more. “I promise that I’ll answer your question, if you answer mine.”

“I don’t know,” I warily muttered, scoffing over my own confusion. “Maybe it’s mine. Maybe it’s my father’s. Maybe both.”

“Truthfully, I wasn’t even certain what you meant in referring to the ‘way you are,’” the voice replied at last with another soft chuckle. “But you sounded rather unhappy, perhaps even trapped, so I couldn’t help but speak up. I was just hoping that you wouldn’t stop talking if I did.”

“Uh huh,” I responded, unconvinced by the stranger’s pretty words. What did they know about how I felt? Not shit, I’d wager. Still, I had to admit, it did feel nice to hear somebody make the effort, even if it was humiliating all the same. “Okay, so are you gonna tell me who this is now?”

“Of course,” the voice agreed rather pleasantly. Their cheer made me wary all over again, as it served to offset with the mood of the dark, dusty office surroundings, and the haunting glow of the numerous, hovering screens, making the shadowed corners that much more black and ominous. “I’m on the 2B grid, camera 34.”

“Uhh,” I mumbled as I searched through the various grids on the screen of my Slate. “What, the one labelled ‘Underwater Containment Area 12?’” 

I was quite sure that was a mistake and I let out a little laugh of mockery. Apparently this smart ass didn’t know everything after all, and suddenly I felt much more superior.

“That’s the one,” the other person replied, immediately contradicting my amusement, its tone a bit too calm for my comfort. It didn’t sound like a person who was pulling a prank, but I personally couldn’t think of this as anything else at this point. Somebody was pulling the new guy’s leg.

I let out a flustered sigh, letting my Slate flop against my lap for a disappointed moment before I finally humored the person who was trying to mess with me, switching to the 2B grid, and pulling up camera 34 on one of the larger screens. All that could be seen was the gentle flutter of deep, fathomless blue with zero visibility. 

All in all, yeah, it was just such a great view.

“I can’t see anything,” I groaned, shaking my head and leaning into one of the armrests of my chair.

“Oh right, there are lights for evening viewing,” the other replied with a forgetful laugh, like they didn’t already know that this screen wouldn’t display anything visible. “Select the lights labelled 2BA12C34 from the advanced interface menu on that device of yours.” 

“I’m quite sure this wasn’t in the training video at all,” I idly muttered in frustration while I searched through the control panel of the Slate for the complicated label indicated by the apparent prankster. It was somewhere half way down the list, but when I found it, I double checked and triple checked the code, and selected it.

The power was switched off, and I tapped the screen to activate the lights. From there, the luminous screen of the slate displayed a sliding bar, indicating the brightness of the viewing lights. Slowly, I slid the button toward the higher end of the bar, watching the large screen hovering before me as I did.

As I turned up the lights, the viewing area slowly gained visibility, going from the deep, murky blue that it had been in shadow, to a more crisp, glassy blue, almost as clear as daytime waters. The lights flowed from above in measured columns, and the ripples danced about the plain, pale walls of the enclosure.

And there, at the furthest end of the containment area from where the camera was stationed, there was a rather large figure swimming in slow, bored circles, its movements sluggish, listless. It was difficult to tell much of anything about the creature, assumably one of the attractions, not even a real lifeform at all. It had positioned itself near one of the lights, so that the glare produced obscured it a bit, but what was clear enough was that it was a huge, bipedal being, with a long tail which draped from its head and down its back.

“So you’re the creature in the tank?” I finally commented my lack of amusement. I suppose the games had been good for staving off my boredom for a time, but alas, my boredom had extended to them, as well.

“Oh?” came the reply of voice, strangely coy in its tone, and utterly failing to pick up on how very unconvinced I was. Either that or they were ignoring my dubiousness for the sake of keeping the joke going. “Watching me now, are you?”

“I’m watching something,” I let out a laugh, despite my growing impatience. “Alright, I’ll humor this for about three seconds longer. If you were the thing in the water, wouldn’t you need to be speaking for me to hear your voice?”

“I’m wirelessly interfacing, as I said before,” the other replied with ease. “I don’t need to physically speak for you to hear my voice. And even if I were speaking into the camera, that wouldn’t allow me to hear you.”

“Oh okay,” I replied with a nod. I was going to get a cramp in my forehead from how tense the muscles were there, furrowing the skin between my brows in doubt. “Well then, do something to prove to me that the thing on screen is really you.”

My words snapped from my mouth like some grand, final, finishing move in a game of strategy. They filtered into whatever it was that was carrying the sound of my voice to my listener, and there was a pause in which the one who could hear me must have been processing my request, bowing to the sheer impossibility of it.

The game was over. I could feel it.

Maybe I was a living relic from a hundred years in the past, but I was not about to be played for a fool. Not tonight.

But then, after a moment of silence, the thing on screen ceased in its slow, patterned swimming, going dead still in the water, instead. It floated idly were it stopped and in disbelief, I leaned forward in my chair, peering at the screen that much closer, waiting to see what the creature would do.

“I’m sorry, my friend..” came the voice, its tone painted with regret that felt so palpable, and yet, completely insincere. The creature twisted in the water, finally orienting itself so that it faced the camera and its shadowed body was fully silhouetted, framed by brilliant, lapping blue.

“Much as I’ve enjoyed our interaction, I’m afraid that within the next few moments, the security office will power down,” the voice went on. “Those viewing lights drained what was left of your power. However, listen carefully; when the power shuts down, stay calm and remain where you are. You should be safe for a few minutes at the very least and it will only take a few minutes for you to reroute power from one of the other areas accessible from your office. By the time you’ve figured out how to do that, though, I’ll no longer be inside this containment area.”

“My hope is that you’ll save both of us a lot of trouble, and mention nothing of this to anyone else,” the creature purred, its voice dropping to a darker tone. With a flicker of its fins, the dark shadow darted out of sight of the viewing screen. Its hasty retreat was followed by a very concerning thud which caused the camera itself to tremble, blurring the image, entirely.

“Goodnight for now, friend,” the voice bid with false charm before the screens, the lights, and the doorlocks all went black, leaving me in the still of the security office, with naught but darkness, save for the glow of my Sheikah Slate.

;


End file.
